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Todays episode was pretty cool, I did notice Team Rocket wasn't in the episode I could care less. I mean the episode didn't call for them, it'd just feel rushed, so I'm glad the writers are learning from there past mistakes. I loved the training parts at the begining, those were some of my favorite scenes. The gym battle was pretty cool too, glad Ash finally won his second gym badge. Now onto the third gym, I like that we just keep moving, no other characters to slow down the gym badge quest like last time *Few*

A close family member of mine died today, I put this in my sign as respect for him

Todays episode was pretty cool, I did notice Team Rocket wasn't in the episode I could care less. I mean the episode didn't call for them, it'd just feel rushed, so I'm glad the writers are learning from there past mistakes. I loved the training parts at the begining, those were some of my favorite scenes. The gym battle was pretty cool too, glad Ash finally won his second gym badge. Now onto the third gym, I like that we just keep moving, no other characters to slow down the gym badge quest like last time *Few*

Overall, I would say awesome episode. Tepig and Oshawott both get awesome new moves and both get premium shining time in the Gym battle. Honestly, I think more Gym battles should be like this. The two shared the spotlight rather evenly. Oshawott took out what is arguably Aloe's strongest Pokemon, and Tepig finished off the battle, so they both get good treatment. I do have to complain about Team Rocket's absence. Jessie, James, and Meowth have always been my favorite characters. Their humor was always the best and I honestly believed that they were the only part of the show meant for entertainment and not advertisement. I don't like them as much now since they're not in the comic relief slot, but they're still pretty awesome. And now the writers have the gall to leave them out of the first episode since EP001? The audacity! The sheer audacity!

Alright, maybe I'm over reacting a little bit. It's still not as bad as when they removed Wobbufet and Mime Jr.

I really didn't enjoy this episode all too much. Mainly because I found the battle ridiculously cheap.

Oshawott and Tepig get hammered by all those attacks and yet manage to knock out Miruhog and Hederia in just one or two. Now this kind of thing has happened before, but it's still annoying and makes the battle less enjoyable.
I was fairly interested in the match until the Oshawott/Miruhog tie. Once that happened, I knew it would be cheap from then on.

I really hope Unova's upcoming gym matches are superior to this one, because I was just unimpressed by this battle.

I like Aloe's character though; hopefully we see more of her in the future.

The reason that Ash's Pokemon barely do any damage to the opponent before knocking it out, is because the writers work so hard to make sure Ash is at a disadvantage, that they don't stop to think that the opponent needs quite a bit of hits too. Thus what ends up happening is Ash beating a Pokemon with 1 to 3 moves while Ash's Pokemon itself takes 100s.

And time is also a factor, I will argue this for many battles that felt cheap, if it was longer, it wouldn't be as cheap.

And for those two reasons, I can't agree with anyone who said a battle was cheap, because the opponent took less damage than Ash's.

-Why is everyone so impressed by the (real life-style) gym? It's just a gym.
-The added guitar riffs to the standard "setting off on adventures" music is both very new and very welcome.
-Aw, Kibago wants to join Ash and Pokabu on the treadmill. :3
-Pokabu's pretty good at dodging balls. Ash...not so much.
-Oh snap, Don George just turned up both bars TO THE MAXIMUM.
-How the hell is a piddly little Ember supposed to stop a ball hurtling at you? This is why you keep getting hit by stuff, Ash. (seriously though, this version of Ember is the lamest "attack" ever. It doesn't look like it should be able to hurt shit.)
-Mijumaru time! It's ever so excited to jump into that giant pool!
-Elsewhere, it's Adorable Time with Pokabu, since Iris and Dento apparently decided it was lunchtime.
-But wait! Kibago's nowhere to be seen! I'm totally predicting that it's gonna end up in trouble on one of the training machines.
-Oh, there it is. Just about to screw stuff up with Mijumaru's swimming training. Nothing too serious.
-OH GOD IT HAS SUMMONED A WAVE WITH WHICH TO DROWN ASH. That monster!
-Mijumaru's learning Aqua Jet! Horray?
-And then Ash gets overexcited and slips while jumping around on the stairs.
-Pokabu's Ember looks like it can actually be useful for something now! Now THAT'S a real improvement!
-That's some ultra-dramatic camera panning on the battlefield!
-Aloe's Yorterrie evolved into Harderrier, and...Pikachu's on Dento's shoulder again. Is this going to be a Thing with gym battles that don't involve the chu?
-Protect is the cheapest of the cheap-ass moves in this show, I swear.
-That's some pretty fancy stuff Pokabua managed to do with Ember!
-Roar again. At least this time Mijumaru only looks mildly confused rather than pissed off and half-asleep.
-...Mijumaru kind of sucks at Aqua Jet.
-Correction. Mijumaru REALLY sucks at Aqua Jet. Didn't Ash bother to train that to the point where it could hit the broad side of a barn?
-Miruhog used Confuse Ray! And...BW's confusion effect is apparently just the Pokemon wobbling around drunkenly while having wavy lines for eyes. Lame.
-Now Ash is having Mijumaru use Aqua Jet. Brilliant! Clearly if it can't aim regular attacks while confused, and if it can't aim Aqua Jet while its mind is clear, then Aqua Jet will hit perfectly while Mijumaru is confused!
-And yes, it actually worked that way. Somehow. At any rate, Miruhog is DOWN!
-Also Mijumaru's down too. Oops!
-Harderrier's abusing Protect again. That is seriously the lamest move ever. (partially because of how cheap it is, partially because if it's so useful, everyone's Pokemon should be using it all the time)
-And now it's using...Giga Impact! Which must be really nice in the anime, since it's not as completely and utterly useless as it is in the games(what with the recharge time being inconsistantly applied in the anime and all).
-Pokabu's not sounding so good.
-But now it's using Nitro Charge, and EVERYONE on the sidelines(except Mr. Museum Curator Calls-His-Wife-"Mama", obviously) cheers it on.
-Blah blah Harderrier falls, Ash wins blah blah
-All I got out of Dento's sommelier speech was "main dish", "Pokabu", and "Nitro Charge." I think Dento's got plans to make Pokabu cook itself into a ham using Nitro Charge.
-Haha, there are Pidove being fed by a guy in the park, just like normal pidgeons. I love little details like that.
-...wait, did we just go an entire episode without TR? SCANDELOUS.

Overall, a pretty good gym episode. At first I found it kind of lazy that Aloe would use the same core strategy she did the first time she fought Ash(roar out Pokabu, trap Mijumaru with Mean Look), but she was definitely strong enough & varied the rest of her strategy enough to get away with it. Even though I really don't see the point of the Roar/Mean Look combo when your enemy knows it's coming; the whole point of that strategy is to catch the foe off-guard! But that's enough nitpicking for now.

Didn't enjoy the battle too much. Miju was way too derpish for my taste. Please explain to be the benefits of trying to execute an attack when you can't even see the target. And Aloe just was annoying. Not only with Protect spam but also Roar + Mean Look. Very unoriginal and cheap. Just man it out and battle normally.

I loved the pokabu battle and im happy it starred in this rematch. Lovedd the ember power up and also its speed boost and of course nitro charge. Overall I really enjoyed the training they did and the rematch. Mijumaru was hilarious as usual so im not even mad itt tied cuz its comedy is enjoyable and at the same time it is powerful too.

As to why he used Aqua Jet confused, I believe it was because Miju was actually trying to aim for the target, so Satoshi figured if he did it while confused, it would work. You know, opposites and all that.

3. Mijumaru didn't go all over the room, he went in a straight line and dodged thunderbolt, he did it perfectly.

No. He still uses it blindly. LITERALLY, since he shuts his eyes while using it. The victory was a complete lucky hit, and that was rather infuriating. Even his "dodging" was simply his lack of skill in controlling his direction.

No. He still uses it blindly. LITERALLY, since he shuts his eyes while using it. The victory was a complete lucky hit, and that was rather infuriating. Even his "dodging" was simply his lack of skill in controlling his direction.

No he shuts his eyes anyway, it's his way of doing it, it could've been a lucky hit, but it was not confused anymore.

So I finally watched this Gym battle rematch episode. I thought it was pretty good. Much better than last week's episode, that's for sure. I was expecting to see something amazing beyond those doors at the Battle Club, but there was just a gym when we finally got to see it. It was nice to see an actual gym in the anime, but it wasn't what I was expecting to find there. Oh well. Having Ash train alongside his Pokabu was pretty neat though, since he doesn't usually train with his Pokemon; I couldn't wait to see Ash all buff teehee. A tiny piece of trivia: Pokabu's Ken Sugimori artwork was seen on Don George's computer. Anyway, this training seemed pretty intense. I liked that balls were used to help Pokabu learn how to dodge Yooterii's Shadow Ball attack, but I laughed when Ash got hit in the face. Feel the burn, Ash! There came a time when I wondered if Don George was trying to help Ash get stronger, or if he was just trying to injure Ash, but things worked out fine, regardless of his intent. Ash and Pokabu seemed to learn a lot from the training than I would have thought was possible. I found it funny that Iris and Dento just sort of stood there and watched. I was almost waiting for them to start eating popcorn too haha. When the Pokabu training was done, Don George showed Ash another room, one with a swimming pool and what looked to be a waterfall. Nice. Ash then sent out Mijumaru, but I was focusing more on Ash. I mean wow, how many times have we seen him without a shirt in Best Wishes so far? Too much fan service can be a bad thing. It was so cute watching Mijumaru bounce around and then dive into the swimming pool. What was cuter, was seeing it swim on its back through the water, although I believe otters swim like that in real life, so it was an accurate portrayal, I guess. While Ash was training, Iris and Dento went to get a snack and to feed Pokabu, only to notice that Kibago went missing. Oh great, when doesn't it wander off somewhere? Iris should put a leash on that thing. Back at the pool, Ash and Mijumaru were swimming just when Kibago came in and caused a giant wave to appear once it started messing with the buttons of the computer there. Oh geez. And then we got some of that circus-y music playing again. Then Mijumaru learned how to use Aqua Jet and Pokabu learned how to use Nitro Charge, which was predictable. Ash then returned to the Shippou City Gym for his rematch against Aloe. Aloe sent out her Miruhoggu and her Haderia. Good grief, I've personally seen enough of Aloe's Miruhoggu, but Haderia was a nice addition; I figure that Haderia balanced-out Miruhoggu's ugliness. Just as Aloe recalled her Miruhoggu and decided to use her Haderia first, I noticed that we were getting Isshu Gym battle music. Ok, I like the BGM in this series, but that theme is getting old. Ash sent his Pokabu first, and Aloe seemed to notice that it looked a bit more fierce than before. Then Kidachi got in there and decided to be the referee again. I wonder if that's his official position; he certainly doesn't look like the type of person who judges matches.

Things finally started and Ash's Pokabu used Ember on Aloe's Haderia. I was hoping that it would hit, but Haderia just used Protect and the attack did nothing. Wow, glad to see all that training pay off *sarcasm*. Oh, and then, to make matters worse, Aloe had Haderia use Shadow Ball but instead of one ball, Haderia shot out four of them! And people wonder why I called Aloe a cheater before. Thankfully, Pokabu dodged two of them, used Ember, and blew up the other two which was mighty impressive, if I do say so myself. Things got messy once more though since Aloe's Haderia used Roar, again. Wow, nice to see some originality there Aloe. At least Mijumaru was sent out, but then Aloe switched to Miruhoggu, and I yelled because it still scares me to death. Miruhoggu used Mean Look to trap Mijumaru again, but Mijumaru attacked it with Shell Blade, which sort of made the situation less annoying. Mijumaru then used Aqua Jet and I thought things were over for Miruhoggu, but apparently, it hadn't mastered it yet. Probably because it shut its eyes when using the move, but I thought that was super cute! Mijumaru tried again, but it still didn't work. Mijumaru used Water Gun but that didn't work either, and Miruhoggu just used Confuse Ray. Oh frick. I was surprised that Mijumaru tried deflecting that Thunderbolt with its shell though, even if it failed. Well, even though Mijumaru was still confused, it was able to hit Miruhoggu with Aqua Jet. I disliked that things ended in a draw for that round, but it was better than nothing, I guess. Mijumaru needs more victories! Anyway, with those two out, it was Pokabu versus Haderia once more. Pokabu used Ember but Haderia used Protect to troll render the attack useless. The only thing that redeemed that was how Pokabu managed to Tackle Haderia. Pokabu got hit with Haderia's Shadow Ball, but it got up like a champ. Wow, I think I may finally be understanding Pokabu's appeal. I used to think it was a generic Pokemon, but it seems cooler now. After talking some more, Aloe had Haderia use Giga Impact on Pokabu and things looked to finally be over. But Pokabu got back up and dodged Haderia's next series of Shadow Ball attacks, which was awesome to see. It looked like the training was paying off, for real. Pokabu then used Nitro Charge as Haderia used Giga Impact. Both attacks collided and things looked serious as both Pokemon looked beat. Thankfully, Haderia fainted just as Pokabu managed to get back up, securing the victory for Ash and Pokabu. That was anti-climactic, but it worked, I guess. Dento and Iris came to congratulate Ash, and all was fine with the world again. Ash finally got the Basic badge from the Shippou City Gym, and he seemed to have earned it, what with all the training he and his Pokemon put in. Ash had his Pokemon healed at the Pokemon Center, and then Ash, Iris, and Dento set their sights on the Pokemon Gym in Hiun City. Well that was a decent Gym battle episode. I disliked that Mijumaru lost against Miruhoggu during their battle, and that Pokabu was the star again, but he's grown on me so it ain't all that bad. I give this Gym battle episode, an 8/10. Stay faaaabulous~

This episode was cool. It was great to see Haderia the 1st time. It was great to see actually training with his Mijumaru and Pokabu at the Battle Club for the Gym Match. It was very neat to see Ash and Pokabu training on the Treadmill, gaining in speed, and being able to dodge round balls being shot at them. During the training, Pokabu was able to learn Flame Charge. It was cool to see Mijumaru also training his speed, this time by using water currents in a pool. During the training Mijumaru was able to move fast enough to be able to learn Aqua Jet, unfortunately he wasn't able to aim correctly. The Re-Match was great. The Roar+Mean Look combo was used again. Mijumaru was able to use his speed to land many attacks on Miruhog, then Mijumaru used Aqua Jet, unfortunately was inaccurate and missed, the 2nd time, Aqua Jet and Thunderbolt collided knocking them both out. Pokabu's new speed helped him be able to move faster and dodge the Shadow Ball attacks. He was able to land a Tackle attack, and then used Flame Charge along with Haderia using Giga Impact collided, and Pokabu was the only one left standing. I'm glad Ash won his 2nd badge.

I loved this episode, especially the beginning in the training montage. Glad to see Tepig be the star of the show this time round. Glad Osha and Tepig both learned new moves,Flame charge and Aqua jet respectively. Watchog as a Wide variaty of moves. Herdier news some strong moves like Giga impact. 10/10